A bunch of British theater professionals – actors, stage directors, playwrights etc, published a protest letter (of course in The Guardian) regarding the invitation extended by the Globe to Israeli national theater Habima.
Interestingly enough, their demand to exclude Habima from the Globe to Globe festival is based on what they call "policies of exclusion practised by the Israeli state". Go figure...
As for the chief reason for excluding Habima, they say the following:
Last year, two large Israeli settlements established "halls of culture" and asked Israeli theatre groups to perform there. A number of Israeli theatre professionals – actors, stage directors, playwrights – declared they would not take part.Of course, in their righteous wrath, authors of the letter don't mention the way Habima deals with the issue (by allowing each person to decide on his/her own participation according to his/her beliefs). Oh well, this would be too much to expect, I guess.
Habima, however, accepted the invitation with alacrity, and promised the Israeli minister of culture that it would "deal with any problems hindering such performances".
A side question to the bunch of hypocrites: how many of them refuse to appear in the occupied Northern Ireland (to take one example)?
